CHARTING MY PERSPECTIVES

Jamie Morris

Initial Perspective

When it comes to social media, I believe that it can be helpful and invigorating to use in a classroom setting, but also comes with high potential for distraction.

Same Perspective

My perspective remains the same. Social media has lots of benefits in education, including many I had never heard of before. However, it can easily be abused or used the wrong way.

Artifacts That Confirmed My Perspective

Dr. Bote’s new twitter page Discovery of new sites and tools in social

networking (RSS Feed Reader, Pinterest, etc.) Class discussion of ways to incorporate social

media. Class announcements and online communities and forums were some of the more popular methods

As discussion continued, many classmates got distracted by social media

Initial Perspective

When it comes to diversity, I think that it is slightly overrated by school systems. Diversity should be celebrated and encouraged, but is often forced. As a former student in PG County Public Schools, I remember being bored and tired of hearing about the importance of diversity in our schools.

Changed Perspective

Because of my experience in PG County schools, where diversity as a racial term was forced on us, I immediately associated the term with ethnicity. However, diversity is important to understand as a future educator in a different way. Most classrooms will be incredibly diverse, whether it be by family background, extracurricular interests, learning styles, and more! Understanding the diversity of the classroom will help me be a more effective teacher because I will be able to recognize the needs of students individually and create lessons that effectively reach all of them.

Artifacts That Changed My Perspective

Dr. Bote’s tip on global perspectives

In class discussion from peers who lacked diversity growing up

Research for Global Education Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c-3YCr7zR0)

Initial Perspective

When I think of the depiction of teachers in movies, I think of overwhelmingly positive plots and stories that feature teachers in difficult situations and overcoming odds, like the Dead Poet’s Society. This is because significant adversity is needed for Hollywood to make it interesting.

New Perspective

In my initial perspective, I only considered movies about teachers, not how all movies depict them. I must elaborate and say that the most memorable portrayals of teachers are always either positive or negative, but mostly teachers are depicted as boring.

Artifacts That Formed My Perspective

Discussion and debate on whether or not education is a profession

Further class mentioning of teachers in the media

Research and reflection of other movies and TV shows about teachers

Question: How do we modernize education?

Origin of Question In class, Dr. Bote

brought up Time Magazine story: If Rip Van Winkle woke up from a 100 year nap, he would still recognize schools because school structure has remained the same for the past century

Why do we apply 100+ year old education philosophies to a completely changed society today?

Future Research Ideas Uses for media and

technology in education Changing dynamic of

classroom demographics Altering structure of

classroom and changing role of classroom teacher

Possible Impact Could make education more

effective and reach to a wider variety of students

Possibly increase efficiency of education, especially when it is so poorly funded

Featured Commentary

Things to look for in the future: The actual meaning of

“diversity” and its value to education

Awareness of public and societal attitude regarding teachers and education

Ways to incorporate social media and technology into education as well as keeping up with networking between teachers

Awareness of my own biases and feelings, as well as their causes